Prestigious Toorak riverfront mansion Tarcoola on the block

A Melbourne construction boss is expecting up to $15.95m for Tarcoola, on Toorak’s Edzell Avenue, while William O’Dwyer’s Bellevue Hill mansion fetched $9.3m.

William O’Dwyer’s Bellevue Hill house.

A private Melbourne construction boss is expecting $14.5m to $15.95m for Tarcoola, one of a handful of riverfront properties on Toorak’s prestigious Edzell Avenue. Selling agent Jock Langley,of Abercromby’s, says the property, of around 2000sq m, has sufficient room for the development of a tennis court and swimming pool. Its owners are selling the five-bedroom house, which was built in the 1930s, because they are spending more time in regional Victoria. The property, named after Tarcoola the racehorse that won the 1893 Melbourne Cup, also features a private jetty and boat shed. The owner paid $7m for it in 2015, according to CoreLogic. The co-agent is the Sydney-based Ken Jacobs,of Forbes. Langley says Melbourne real estate is performing strongly and he has more than $60m worth of deals in play.

Developer’s home fetches $9.3m

The Sydney mansion of failed property developer William O’Dwyer sold at auction for more than $9m but unsurprisingly the British-born businessman and head of the collapsed Ralan Group chose not to comment on his relocation plans. Built in 2007, the Fairweather Street, Bellevue Hill, house, which is listed on ASIC documents as Ralan’s headquarters, was on the market through Sydney Sotheby’s International agent Michael Pallier. The property sold at auction for $9.26m. Mr O’Dwyer forked out $5.7m for the four-bedroom and four-bathroom family home 14 years ago and had previously told The Weekend Australian he would be reluctant to sell it. ASIC documents reveal it has mortgages owing to the National Australia Bank and non-bank lender Wingate. “I am not going to talk to the press,” Mr O’Dwyer told Mansion this week. Ralan’s empire was partly funded by investors handing over their deposits to the group to spend on its rapid expansion but it came unstuck taking on too much debt. Ralan collapsed into administration in 2019. A prolific developer in Sydney’s suburbs from Arncliffe near the airport to the leafy Sydney suburb of Gordon, Ralan’s move into the Gold Coast, specifically the purchase of the Ruby towers site at Surfers Paradise as well as its promises of offering apartment buyers 20 per cent interest on their deposits led to its demise.

Slow vaccine rollout ‘a hindrance’

Queensland property developers are calling on state and federal governments to speed up the vaccine immunisation process, warning the slow rollout was impeding cashed-up foreign buyers from purchasing local real estate and was ultimately hampering the nation’s competitiveness. Brisbane-based Consolidated Properties chairman and chief executive Don O’Rorke said the feedback they were receiving from agents that deal particularly with the Hong Kong and Taiwanese markets suggested there was huge pent-up demand of people wanting to move to Australia because of how well the pandemic had been managed here. “What is stopping them is the slow rollout of the vaccine program, we would definitely support speeding up the vaccination program,” said Mr O’Rorke, who recently paid $43.5m for one of Brisbane’s prime riverfront sites, the former ABC headquarters at Toowong. “Australia’s great international reputation coupled with the forthcoming Brisbane Olympics is an enormous opportunity for us to grasp,” Mr O’Rorke added.